1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a combined piloting method of remote operated underwater vehicles, a device for the implementation of said method and a system using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The use of remote operated underwater vehicles, also called ROV (remote operated vehicle) in effecting construction and maintenance operations of underwater structures, is widely used in the offshore and scientific environment and for the installation of building structures.
The necessity of operating with increasingly more voluminous structures and/or requiring particular operations, has led to the production of more powerful and high-performance ROVs, also having special equipment for the particular intervention.
Operative procedures have also been elaborated, specifically for particular operations, such as for example the lowering and positioning of objects in an underwater environment, visual inspection during underwater installation operations and the reduction of disturbances during the moving of long or large-sized structures.
There are currently various types of different ROVs, each of which can be used for effecting a certain operation.
In particular, low-power ROVs which are generally used only for the visual inspection of underwater operations, can be distinguished from different types of high-power ROVs which differ in their use, for example the moving of objects and/or actuating operations through robotic systems.
In order to be able to effect the numerous necessary operations, for example in offshore oil production, an equivalent number of different ROVs each belonging to a particular type of use is therefore necessary.
The boats used for offshore operations, however, are generally not equipped with a high number of different types of remote operated vehicles, in particular due to their encumbrances and significant costs.
These crafts are generally equipped with low-power ROVs, also called inspection ROVs, which, however, cannot be used for carrying out operations to be effected by high-power ROVs.
This is currently not possible even when the lower power offered by inspection ROVs is satisfied through the use of a plurality of said vehicles.
The use of various inspection ROVs in fact does not achieve the results offered by a high-power ROV as, for this purpose, it is necessary to have a coordination of the operations of the single inspection ROVs which cannot be achieved through the currently known remote piloting methods which only allow to pilot the single ROVs separately.
In the absence of this fine coordination, the single inspection ROVs used for example in moving objects in an underwater environment could develop contrasting forces on said object making it ungovernable and even damaging it.